Megaupload Will Return As ‘Massive Global Network,’ Says Kim Dotcom

It has been more than seven months since Megaupload was shut down for violating anti-piracy law by hosting copyrighted material, and Kim Dotcom is beginning to make grandiose claims about a relaunch of his site. He announced more of the new site's planned features over Twitter on Tuesday.

"MEGA will return. Bigger. Better. Faster. Free of charge & shielded from attacks. Evolution!" tweeted the founder of Megaupload. Dotcom also posted, "We are building a massive global network. All non-US hosters will be able to connect servers [and] bandwidth. Get ready."

As a precaution, the new operation will not be taking any data from users within the United States. The new standards are an attempt to keep the MEGA network of sites from becoming targets of American entertainment industry organizations.

Torrent Freak says these statements would have been written off had they come from anyone else, but Dotcom's reputation carries weight. "With enthusiasm, energy and positivity coming out of his every pore, there is something about the larger-than-life German [Dotcom] that inspires confidence that these were not casual off-the-cuff remarks," writes the BitTorrent news site.

File sharing won't be the only tool available on the new MEGA sites, Dotcom promises. In his stream of tweets, he invited participation from developers of file managers and people who work with email and fax tools, VOIP and video apps; early API access will be granted to participating parties.

Megaupload was seized last January, and Dotcom and three other employees were arrested in the U.S. and New Zealand. The arrests were based on "accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue," according to a USA Today article from Jan. 20.

The Megaupload founder was released after the New Zealand High Court ruled that the raid on his mansion was illegal. On June 28, the NZ Herald reported it was found that "warrants used did not adequately describe the offences to which they were related."

USA Today also reports that Megaupload earned Dotcom $42 million in 2011 alone. The list of websites under the Mega moniker before the shutdown included the direct download site Megaupload, the video hosting website Megavideo, the image hosting website Megapix, the live-stream video site Megalive, the audio hosting service Megabox and a video streaming site exclusively for pornography called Megaporn.

Dotcom's statements come as a relief to media pirates, still in disbelief of the Demonoid shutdown in July. What started as a typical DDoS attack turned into a Ukrainian government takeover, leaving users of the semi-private BitTorrent site with little hope.

Other BitTorrent sites like the Pirate Bay remain intact, but that could change at any time. Popular sites that deal in the distribution of copyrighted materials are coming under scrutiny due to the efforts of media groups like the MPAA and RIAA.